This document summarizes the common motifs and archetypes found in stories about heroes, including challenges they face, allies who help them, obstacles they must overcome, and rewards they receive. It then provides a detailed summary of the myth of Heracles/Hercules and his 12 labors, including struggles with monsters like the Nemean Lion and Lernaean Hydra. The summary traces Heracles' lineage, madness inflicted by Hera, purification rites, tasks assigned by Eurystheus to prove himself, and adventures during each labor.

1. Heroes

2. Ten motifs frequently appear:
(1) The hero usually has elements of the
extraordinary linked to his birth and his childhood.
(2) He inevitably (naguzer) faces opposition of one
sort or another from the beginning, and as a result
he must prove his inherent worth by surmounting
(overcome) challenges of every kind.
(3) His enemy or enemies usually instigate (brkany,
uksany) his achievement.
(4) he is helped by at least one ally(ithadi), divine or
human.

3. • (5) He faces apparently insuperable(of a difficulty) obstacles, often
labors that must be accomplished or a quest (lmby arsy ki talash)
that must be completed.
• (6) Adventurous conflicts with divine, human, or monstrous
opponents present him with physical, sexual, and spiritual
challenges. (7) He may also have to observe taboos(mumanat)—he
must not, for example, look back, eat of a forbidden fruit, or be too
inquisitive(mtjasus).
• (8) Death itself is the ultimate(final) conquest, usually achieved by
going to and returning from the Underworld.
• (9) The hero's success may be rewarded with marriage, political
security, or wealth and power.
• (10) But knowledge through suffering and more lasting spiritual
enlightenment (literal or symbolic)— entailing‫انقالب‬ ‫)سفید‬
purification, rebirth, redemption(rhae), and even
edification(traki)—are also part of a hero's attainment.

4. • Some heroes do not always act as heroes and reveal their
feet of clay, and all heroes, to be sure, do not live happily
ever after; a few of them are even undone by the heroines
with whom they are associated. Witness(gwah) the life and
humiliating demise(intqal) of Jason and the death of
Heracles, both excruciating(inthae tklef) and glorious at one
and the same time; Theseus too suffers a miserable end as
a dishonored exile.

5. • Heroines also provide motifs(bunyadi khyal) that are just as
intriguing(dilchsp) and varied as those of the heroes. They
usually are of royal or divine stature, are possessed of
extraordinary beauty, wield(lgana) great power, and
become the mothers of heroes.
• (1) The girl leaves home.
• (2) The girl is secluded(weran) beside a river, in a tower, in a
forest, etc.).
• (3) She is made pregnant by a god.
• (4) She suffers punishment or rejection or a similar
unpleasant consequence.

6. • As the lover or the wife of a hero, a heroine can perform great feats
because of passionate devotion.
• Heroes can be destroyed by heroines through cleverness or
guile(fraib), for example:
• Medea
• Clytemnestra
• Helen of Troy
• Penelope

7. • Electryon, king of Mycenae, and his sons fought at Mycenae against the sons
of Pterelaus, king of the Teleboans (a people of western Greece). Only one
son from each family survived. The Teleboans then retreated(pichy htna) ,
taking with them Electryon's cattle. Electryon planned to attack the Teleboans
and made Amphitryon (son of his brother, Alcaeus) king in his place,
betrothing(mngni krna) him to his daughter Alcmene.
• Amphitryon recovered the stolen cattle by paying ransom(rhae dilana) to King
Elis, and while he was herding them, he threw his club(neza) at one of them
and accidentally killed Electryon. For his homicide(mrdam kashi), he was
exiled from Mycenae, while his uncle Sthenelus became king.

8. • Taking Alcmena, Amphitryon went to Thebes, where Creon purified him.
Alcmena, nevertheless, refused to lie with Amphitryon until he had
avenged the death of her brothers by punishing the Teleboans.3
Amphitryon's expedition was successful through the treachery(be
wafae) of Comaetho, daughter of the Teleboan king Pterelaus. Out of
love for Amphitryon she pulled from Pterelaus' head the golden hair that
guaranteed him immortality and made the Teleboans invincible(na kabil
e tskheer)
• . Thus Pterelaus died and Amphitryon was victorious. Amphitryon killed
Comaetho and returned to Thebes.

9. • Meanwhile, Zeus, taking advantage of Amphitryon’s absence,
impersonated him and, assuring Alcmene that her brothers were now
avenged—since Amphitryon had indeed gained the required victory
that very morning—lay with her all one night, to which he gave the
length of three because the procreation of so great a champion as
Zeus had in mind could not be accomplished in haste.
• On the next day, when Amphitryon returned, eloquent(bht zyada
bolny wala) of victory and of his passion for her, Alcmcne did not
welcome him and said “surely you do not expect me to listen twice to
the story of your exploits(fatuhat)?”

10. • Amphitryon, unable to understand these remarks, consulted the seer
Teiresias, who told him that Alcemene had been impregnated by
Zeus; and thereafter he never dared sleep with Alcmene again, for
fear of incurring divine jealousy.
• Nine months later, on Olympus, Zeus happened to boast that he had
fathered a son, now at the point of birth, who would be called
Heracles, which means ‘Glory of Hera’, and rule the noble House of
Perseus. Hera thereupon made him promise that any prince born
before nightfell to the House of Perseus should be High King.

11. • When Zeus swore(kasm khae the) an unbreakable oath(half) to this
effect, Hera went at once to Mycenae, where she hastened the pangs
of Nicippe, wife of King Sthenelus. She then hurried to Thebes, and
squatted cross-legged at Alcmene’s door, with her clothing tied into
knots, and her fingers locked together; by which means she delayed
the birth of Heracles, until Eurystheus, son of Sthenelus, a seven-
months child, already lay in his cradle.
• When Heracles appeared, one hour too late, he was found to have a
twin named Iphicles, Amphitryon’s son and the younger by a night. At
first, Heracles was called Alcaeus, or Palaemon.

12. • Though Zeus could not go back on his word and allow Heracles to rule
the House of Perseus, he persuaded Hera to agree that, after
performing whatever twelve labours Eurystheus might set him, his son
should become a god.
• Hera also sent a pair of snakes to kill the infant Heracles, whose birth
she had not been able to prevent.
• Thus Heracles survived. In his education he was taught chariot driving
by Amphitryon, wrestling by Autolycus, archery by Eurytus, and music
by Linus.

13. THE MADNESS OF HERACLES
• Some time later, Hera brought about a fit of madness in which Heracles
killed Megara and her children. When he recovered his sanity, he left
Thebes and went first to Thespiae, where Thespius purified him, and
then to Delphi, where he sought further advice. Here the priestess of
Apollo called him Heracles for the first time (until then he had been
known as Alcides) and told him to go to Tiryns and there for twelve
years serve Eurystheus, performing the labors that he would impose. If
he did them, she said, he would become immortal.

14. THE TWELVE LABOURS
• The Greek word for labors is athloi, which really means contests
undertaken for a prize. In Heracles' case the prize was immortality, and at
least three of his Labors are really conquests of death.6 Heracles did not
always perform the Labors unaided; sometimes Athena helped him,
sometimes his nephew, Iolaus. The first six Labors all take place in the
Peloponnese, the remaining six in different parts of the world. In these
Heracles has changed from a local hero into the benefactor of all
humankind. The list of the labors varies, but the twelve given are
traditional

15. 1. The Nemean Lion
• Heracles was required to bring the skin of this beast to
Eurystheus. He killed it with a club that he had himself cut. The
lion was invulnerable(jisy zahm na lagy), and Heracles had to
strangle(gala goontna) it and then flay(skin utanarna) it by
using its own claws(panjy) to cut its hide. The club and lion skin
henceforth(aj k bad) were Heracles' weapon and clothing and
are his attributes(sifat) in art and literature.

17. 2. The Lernaean Hydra
• This serpent(izdaha) lived in the swamps(daldal) of Lerna, near Argos. It had
nine heads, of which eight were mortal and the ninth immortal. Each time
Heracles clubbed a head off, two grew in its place. The labor was made the
harder by a huge crab(kekra), which Hera sent to aid the Hydra. First Heracles
killed this monster, and then killed the Hydra, helped by his nephew, Iolaiis,
son of Iphicles. Each time he removed one of the heads, Iolaiis cauterized(dag
dena) the stump with a burning brand so that another could not grow.
Heracles buried the immortal head under a huge rock. He then dipped his
arrows in the Hydra's poison.

19. Iolaiis helping Heracles

20. 3. The Cerynean Hind

21. • The hind had golden horns and was sacred to Artemis; it took
its name from Mt. Cerynea in Arcadia.7 It was harmless, nor
might it be harmed without incurring(mol lena) Artemis'
wrath(gussa). After pursuing(picha krna) it for a year Heracles
caught it by the river Ladon, and carried it back to Eurystheus.
On the way Artemis met him and claimed her sacred animal,
but she was appeased(mutmain) when Heracles laid the blame
on Eurystheus.

22. 4. The Erymanthian Boar

23. • This destructive animal had to be brought back alive from Mt.
Erymanthus. Heracles chased the boar into deep snow and there
trapped it with nets.
• On his way to the chase, Heracles was entertained by the
centaur(do nasl) Pholus, who set before him a jar of wine that
belonged to all the centaurs in common. When it was opened,
the other centaurs, attracted by its fragrance, attacked Heracles,
who repelled(door hatana) and pursued them. Most of them
were scattered all over Greece.

24. 5. The Augean Stables
• Augeas, son of Helius (the Sun) and king of Elis, owned vast herds of
cattle whose stables(astabl) had never been cleaned out. Heracles was
commanded by Eurystheus to perform the task, and successfully
achieved it within one day by diverting the rivers Alpheus and Peneus so
that they flowed through the stables. Augeas agreed to give Heracles
one-tenth of his herds as a reward, but refused to keep his promise and
expelled both Heracles and his own son Phyleus (who had taken
Heracles' part in the quarrel).

25. •After he had finished the Labors, Heracles returned to
Elis at the head of an army, took the city, and killed
Augeas, making Phyleus king in his place.
•It was after this expedition that Heracles was said to
have instituted the Olympic Games, the greatest of
Greek festivals, held every four years in honor of Zeus.
He marked out the stadium by pacing it out himself.

26. 6. The Stymphalian Birds

28. • HERACLES’S Sixth Labour was to remove the countless brazen-beaked,
brazen-clawed, brazen-winged, man-eating birds, sacred to Ares which
killed men and beasts by discharging a shower of brazen feathers and at
the same time muting a poisonous excrement(fuzla), which blighted the
crops.
• On arrival at the marsh, which lay surrounded by dense woods, Heracles
found himself unable to drive away the birds with his arrows; they were
too numerous. Moreover, the marsh seemed neither solid enough to
support a man walking, nor liquid enough for the use of a boat.

29. • As Heracles paused(rok lena) irresolutely(mtlon mzaj) on the bank, Athena
gave him a pair of brazen castanets, made by Hephaestus; or it may have
been a rattle. Standing on a spur of Mount Cyllene, which overlooks the
marsh, Heracles clacked the castanets, or shook the rattle, raising such a
din that the birds soared up in one great flock, mad with terror. He shot
down scores of them as they flew off to the Isle of Ares in the Black Sea.

30. 7. The Cretan Bull
• EURYSTHEUS ordered Heracles, as his Seventh Labour, to capture the
Cretan Bull. When Heracles sailed to Crete, Minos offered him every
assistance in his power, but he preferred to capture the bull single-handed.
After a long struggle, he brought the monster across to Mycenae, where
Eurystheus, dedicating it to Hera, set it free. Hera however, loathing a gift
which redounded to Heracles’s glory, drove the bull first to Sparta, and
then back through Arcadia and across the Isthmus to Attic Marathon,
whence Theseus later dragged it to Athens as a sacrifice to Athene.

31. 8. The Mares Of Diomedes
•EURYSTHEUS ordered Heracles, as his Eighth Labour, to
capture the four savage mares of Thracian King Diomedes,
that were fed human flesh.
•he overcame them by ingeniously cutting a channel which
caused the sea to flood the low-lying plain; when they
turned to run, he pursued them, stunned Diomedes with
his club, dragged his body around the lake that had now
formed, and set it before his own mares, which tore at the
still living flesh. Their hunger being now fully assuaged, he
mastered them without much trouble.

32. 9. The Girdle of Hippolyta
• HERACLES’S Ninth Labour was to fetch for Eurystheus’s daughter Admete
the golden girdle of Ares worn by the Amazonian queen Hippolyte. Taking
one ship or, some say, nine, and a company of volunteers, among whom
were Iolaus, Telamon of Aegina, Peleus of Iolcus and, according to some
accounts, Theseus of Athens, Heracles set sail for the river Thermodon.

33. • The Amazons made their men perform all household tasks, while
the women fought and governed. The arms and legs of infant boys
were therefore broken to incapacitate them for war or travel.
These warrior women showed no regard for justice or decency, but
were famous warriors, being the first to employ cavalry(gur swar
foj). They carried brazen bows and short shields shaped like a half
moon; their helmets, clothes, and girdles were made from the
skins of wild beasts.

34. • Hippolyte paid Heracles a visit and, attracted by his muscular body,
offered him Ares’s girdle as a love gift. But Hera had meanwhile gone
about, disguised in Amazon dress, spreading a rumour that these
strangers planned to abduct Hippolyte; whereupon the incensed
warrior-women mounted their horses and charged down on the ship.
Heracles, suspecting treachery, killed Hippolyte off-hand, removed her
girdle, seized her axe and other weapons, and prepared to defend
himself. He killed each of the Amazon leaders in turn, putting their
army to flight after great slaughter.

35. 10. The Cattle of Geryon

36. • HERACLES’s Tenth Labour was to fetch the famous cattle of
Geryon from Erytheia, an island near the Ocean stream,
without either demand or payment. Geryon, was the King of
Tartessus in Spain, and reputed the strongest man alive. He
had been born with three heads, six hands and three bodies
joined together at the waist. Geryon’s cattle, beasts of
marvellous beauty, were guarded by the herdsman Eurytion,
son of Ares, and by the two-headed watchdog Orthrus.

37. • Helius lent Heracles his golden goblet, shaped like a water-lily, in which
he sailed to Erytheia.
• On his arrival, he ascended Mount Abas. The dog Orthrus rushed at
him, barking, but Heracles’s club struck him lifeless; and Eurytion,
Geryon’s herdsman, hurrying to Orthrus’s aid, lied in the same manner.
• Challenged to battle, Heracles ran to Geryon’s flank and shot him
sideways through all three bodies with a single arrow; but some say
that he stood his ground and let loose a flight of three arrows.

38. 1 1 . The Apples of the Hesperides
• The Eleventh Labour was to fetch fruit from the golden apple-tree,
Mother Earth’s wedding gift to Hera, with which she had been so
delighted that she planted it in her own divine garden. This garden lay
on the slopes of Mount Atlas.
• When Hera found, one day, that Atlas’s daughters, the Hesperides, to
whom she had entrusted the tree, were pilfering the apples, she set
the ever-watchful dragon Ladon to coil around the tree as its guardian.

39. • Heracles, not knowing in what direction the Garden of the Hesperides lay,
marched through Illyria to the river Po, the home of the oracular sea-god
Nereus. Some say, however, that Heracles went to Prometheus for this
information.
• Nereus had advised Heracles not to pluck the apples himself, but to employ
Atlas as his agent, meanwhile relieving him of his fantastic burden;
therefore, on arriving at the Garden of the Hesperides, he asked Atlas to do
him this favour. Atlas would have undertaken almost any task for the sake
of an hour’s respite, but he feared Ladon, whom Heracles thereupon killed
with an arrow shot over the garden wall.

40. • Heracles now bent his back to receive the weight of the celestial globe, and
Atlas walked away, returning presently with three apples plucked by his
daughters. He found the sense of freedom delicious. ‘I will take these apples
to Eurystheus myself without fail,’ he said, ‘if you hold up the heavens for a
few months longer.’ Heracles pretended to agree but, having been warned by
Nereus not to accept any such offer, begged Atlas to support the globe for
only one moment more, while he put a pad on his head. Atlas, easily
deceived, laid the apples on the ground and resumed his burden; whereupon
Heracles picked them up and went away with a farewell.

41. •After some months Heracles brought the apples to
Eurystheus, who handed them back to him; he then gave
them to Athene, and she returned them to the nymphs,
since it was unlawful that Hera’s property should pass from
their hands.
•This labor is a conquest of death. The apples are symbols of
immortality, and the tree in the garden of the Hesperides is
a kind of Tree of Life.

42. 12. The Capture Of Cerberus
• HERACLES’S last, and most difficult, Labour was to bring the dog
Cerberus up from Underworld.
• He was guided by Athene and Hermes—for whenever, exhausted by his
Labours, he cried out in despair to Zeus, Athene always came hastening
down to comfort him. Terrified by Heracles’s scowl, Charon fortied him
across the river Styx without demur; in punishment of which irregularity
he was lettered by Hades for one entire year.

43. • Near the gates of Tartarus, Heracles found his friends Theseus and
Peirithous fastened to cruel chairs, and wrenched Theseus free, but obliged
to leave Peirithous behind; next, he rolled away the stone under which
Demeter had imprisoned Ascalaphus; and then, wishing to gratify the
ghosts with a gift of warm blood, slaughtered one Hades’s cattle. Their
herdsman, Menoetes, or Menoetus, the son Ceuthonymus, challenged him
to a wrestling match, but was seized around the middle and had his ribs
crushed. At this, Persephone, who came out from her palace and greeted
Heracles like a brother, intervened and pleaded for Menoetes’s life.

44. • When Heracles demanded Cerberus, Hades, standing by his wife’s
side, replied grimly: ‘He is yours, if you can master him without
using your club or your arrows.’ Heracles found the dog chained to
the gate of Acheron, and resolutely gripped him by the throat—
from which rose three heads, each maned with serpents. The
barbed tail flew up strike, but Heracles, protected by the lion pelt,
did not relax his grip until Cerberus choked and yielded.

45. • Heracles brought Cerberus to Mycenae, Eurystheus, who was offering a
sacrifice, handed him a slave’s portion, reserving the best cuts for his own
kinsmen; and that Heracles showed his just resentment by killing three of
Eurystheus’s sons: Perimedes, Eurybius, and Eurypilus.

46. T H E DEATH OF HERACLES
• Some time after the completion of the Labors, Heracles fulfilled the
promise he had made to the soul of Meleager, to marry his sister
Deïanira, daughter of Oeneus, king of Calydon. To win her Heracles had
to wrestle with the river-god Acheloiis, who was horned like a bull and
had the power of changing himself into different shapes.
• In the struggle Heracles broke off one of Acheloiis' horns; and after his
victory, he gave it back, receiving in return the miraculous horn of
Amalthea, which could supply its owner with as much food and drink as
he wished. Heracles returned with Deïanira to Tiryns. On the way the
centaur Nessus carried Deïanira across the river Evenus. He attempted
to violate her, but Heracles shot him with his bow.

47. • As he was dying he advised Deïanira to gather some of the blood
that flowed from his wound, which had been caused by an arrow
that had been dipped in the Hydra's poison. It would, he said,
prevent Heracles from loving any other woman more than he loved
Deïanira. She therefore kept the blood, and for a number of years
she and Heracles lived at Tiryns, where she bore him children,
including a son, Hyllus, and a daughter, Macaria.
• Deianira, meanwhile, was living in Trachis. She had not seen
Heracles for fifteen months. Heracles killed Eurytus and sacked
Oechalia on his way back from Asia, sending lole and the other
captive women back to Trachis with Lichas. When she realized that
Heracles loved lole, Deianira, hoping to win him back, dipped a
robe in the blood of Nessus and sent it to Heracles by Lichas‘ hand
for him to wear at his thanksgiving sacrifice to Zeus.

48. • As the flames of the sacrificial fire warmed the poisoned blood, the robe
clung to Heracles and burned him with unendurable torment. In his agony,
he hurled Lichas to his death in the sea and had himself carried back to
Trachis, where a huge funeral pyre was made for him upon Mt. Oeta.
Dei'anira killed herself with a sword when she realized what she had done.
• So the mortal part of Heracles was burned away and he gained immortality,
ascending to Olympus.

49. On Olympus, Zeus congratulated himself that his favourite son had
behaved so nobly. ‘Heracles’s immortal part’, he announced, ‘is safe from
death, and I shall soon welcome him to this blessed region.’
• Now, Zeus had destined Heracles as one of the Twelve Olympians.
Henceforth, Hera regarded Heracles as her son and loved him next only
to Zeus. All the immortals welcomed his arrival; and Hera married him
to her pretty daughter Hebe, who bore him Alexiares and Anicetus. And,
indeed, Heracles had earned Hera’s true gratitude in the revolt of the
Giants by killing Pronomus, when he tried to violate her.

50. Perseus

51. • Of the heroes of Argos, first in importance, is Perseus. His
grandfather Abas had twin sons, Proetus and Acrisius, who
quarreled even before their birth. Acrisius, who became king of
Argos itself while Proetus ruled Tiryns, had no sons and only
one daughter, Danaë; an oracle foretold that her son would kill
Acrisius. To keep her from having children, Acrisius shut Danaë
up in a brazen underground chamber in his palace, but Zeus
loved her and entered the chamber in the form of a shower of
gold and lay with her.

52. • Their child was Perseus, and Danaë kept him in the chamber for
four years, unknown to Acrisius, until he was discovered from
the noise he made while playing. Acrisius refused to believe
that Zeus was the child's father and put mother and child into a
chest which he set afloat on the sea. The chest floated to the
island of Seriphos, where the fisherman Dictys (whose name
means "net") found it and rescued Danaë and Perseus, giving
them shelter in his own home.

53. • Now Polydectes, brother of Dictys, was king of Seriphos, and as
Perseus grew to manhood, he fell in love with Danaë, who
refused him. He then summoned the leading men of the island
to a banquet at which each man had to present him with the
gift of a horse. Perseus boasted that he could just as easily give
Polydectes the Gorgon Medusa's head. Polydectes, eager to get
Perseus out of the way, took him at his word and ordered him
to perform the task.

54. Gorgons
• THE GORGONES (or Gorgons) were three powerful daemons named
Medousa (Medusa), Sthenno and Euryale. Of the three sisters only
Medousa was mortal. The Gorgon Medusa had serpents for hair,
huge teeth, protruding tongue, and altogether so ugly a face that all
who gazed at it were petrified with fright and turned to stone.

56. • Athene overheard the conversation at Seriphos and, being a sworn
enemy of Medusa’s, for whose frightful appearance she had herself
been responsible, accompanied Perseus on his adventure. First she led
him to the city of Deicterion in Samos, where images of all the three
Gorgons are displayed, thus enabling him to distinguish Medusa from
her immortal sisters Stheno and Euryale; then she warned him never to
look at Medusa directly, but only at her reflection, and presented him
with a brightly-polished shield.

57. • Hermes also helped Perseus, giving him an
adamantine sickle with which to cut off Medusa’s
head. Advised by Hermes, Perseus made his way to
the three daughters of Phorcys, sisters of the
Gorgons and old women from their birth.

59. • They alone could tell Perseus the way to some nymphs who
possessed certain magic objects he would need for his task, but
would part with their information only under stress. Among
them they had one eye and one tooth, which they passed to
one another in turn. Perseus got hold of these and gave them
back only when the Graeae had told him the way to the
nymphs. From the nymphs he received three objects: a Cap of
Invisibility, a pair of winged sandals, and a wallet or kibisis.

60. • Perseus now flew to the Gorgons, whose home was
somewhere on the edge of the world. They were asleep when
Perseus came; guided by Athena and looking only at the
Gorgon's reflection in his brazen shield he beheaded Medusa
and put the head in the kibisis. Perseus was able to fly away
from Medusa's sisters unharmed, since he was wearing the
Cap of Invisibility.

61. Andromeda
• As he rounded the coast of Philistia to the north, he caught sight of a woman
chained to a sea-cliff, and instantly fell in love with her. This was Andromeda,
daughter of Cepheus, the Ethiopian King of Joppa, and Cassiopeia. Cassiopeia
had boasted that both she and her daughter were more beautiful than the
Nereids, who complained of this insult to their protector Poseidon. Poseidon
sent a flood and a female sea-monster to devastate Philistia; and when
Cepheus consulted the Oracle of Ammon, he was told that his only hope of
deliverance lay in sacrificing Andromeda to the monster.

62. • On condition that, if he rescued her, she should be his wife and
return to Greece with him, Perseus took to the air again, grasped
his sickle and, diving murderously from above, beheaded the
approaching monster, which was deceived by his shadow on the
sea. He had drawn the Gorgon’s head from the wallet, lest the
monster might look up, and now laid it face downwards on a
bed of leaves and sea-weed, while he cleansed his hands of
blood, raised three altars and sacrificed a calf, a cow, and a bull
to Hermes, Athene, and Zeus respectively.

63. •Perseus returned hurriedly to Seriphos, taking
Andromeda with him, and found that Danaë and Dictys,
threatened by the violence of Polydectes who, of course,
never intended to marry Hippodameia, had taken refuge
in a temple. He therefore went straight to the palace
where Polydectes was banqueting with his companions,
and announced that he had brought the promised love-
gift. Greeted by a storm of insults, he displayed the
Gorgon’s head, averting his own gaze as he did so, and
turned them all to stone; the circle of boulders is still
shown in Seriphos. He then gave the head to Athene,
who fixed it on her aegis; and Hermes returned the
sandals, wallet, and helmet to the guardianship of the
Stygian nymphs.

64. • After raising Dictys to the throne of Seriphos, Perseus set sail
for Argos, accompanied by his mother, his wife, and a party of
Cyclopes. Acrisius, hearing of their approach, fled to Pelasgian
Larissa; but Perseus happened to be invited there for the
funeral games which King Teutamides was holding in honour of
his dead father, and competed in the five-fold contest. When it
came to the discus-throw, his discus, carried out of its path by
the wind and the will of the Gods, struck Acrisius’s foot and
killed him.

65. Theseus

66. • Aegeus, one of the kings of Athens, had two wives: Melite and
Chaicioppe, but was without any hier.
• He went to consult the oracle and the oracle told him “not to
open the wineskin’s mouth till he reaches home lest he shall die
of grief some day.” Aegeus could not understand the
proclamation of the oracle. On his way back home, he stayed
with his friend Pittheus, the king of Troezen. Aegeus shared the
proclamation of the oracle with Pittheus, who understood it at
once.

67. • At night he made Aegeus drunk and sleep with his daughter
Athera.
• Before leaving Troezen, Aegeus told Athera that if their child
were a boy she must bring him up without saying who his father
was. She was to send him to Athens when he was old enough to
lift a rock by himself, under which Aegeus would leave a sword
and a pair of sandals as tokens by which he could recognize his
son.

68. • Aethra gave birth to a boy. He was raised up in Troezen, where
his guardian Pittheus discreetly spread rumour that Poseidon
had been his father.
• One day Heracles, dining at Troezen with Pittheus, removed his
lion-skin and threw it over a stool. When the palace children
came in, they screamed and fled, all except seven-year-old
Theseus, who ran to take axe from the woodpile, and returned
boldly, prepared to attack a real lion.

69. • Aethra, leading him to the rock underneath which Aegeus had
hidden the sword and sandals, told story of his birth. He had no
difficulty in moving the rock, called the ‘Rock of Theseus’, and
recovered the tokens. Yet, at Pittheus’s warnings and his
mother’s entreaties, he would not visit Athens by the safe sea
route, but insisted on travelling over by foot, impelled by a
desire to emulate the feats of his cousin Heracles, whom he
greatly admired.

70. 1. Periphetes

71. • THESEUS set out to free the bandit-ridden coast road which led from
Troezen to Athens. He would pick no quarrels but take vengeance on
all who dared to attack him, making the punishment fit the crime, as
was Heracles’s way. At Epidaurus, Periphetes the cripple waylaid
attacked him. Periphetes, whom some call Poseidon’s son, and
others the son of Hephaestus and Anticleia, owned a huge brazen
club, with which he used to kill wayfarers. Theseus wrenched the
club from his hands and battered him to death. Delighted with its
size and weight, he proudly carried it about ever afterwards

72. 2. Sinis

73. • At Isthmus lived Sinis,, He had been nicknamed ‘pinebender’, because
he was strong enough to bend down the tops of pine-trees until they
touched the earth, and would often ask innocent passers-by to help
him with this task, but then suddenly release his hold. As the tree
sprang upright again, they were hurled high into the air, and killed by
the fall. Or he would bend down the tops of two neighbouring trees
until they met, and tie one of his victim’s arms to each, so that he was
torn asunder when the trees were released. Theseus wrestled with
Sinis, overpowered him, and served him as he had served others.

74. 3. The Wild Sow (Boar)

75. •Next, at Crommyum, he hunted and destroyed a fierce
and monstrous wild sow, which had killed so many
farmers that they no longer dared plough their fields.

76. 4. Sciron
• Following the coast road, Theseus came to cliffs rushing
overlooking the sea, which had become a stronghold of the
bandit Sciron; Sciron used to seat himself upon a rock and force
passing travelers to wash his feet: when they stooped to the task
he would kick them over the cliff into the sea, where a giant
turtle swam about, waiting to devour them. Theseus, refusing to
wash Sciron’s feet, lifted him from the rock and flung him into
the sea.

77. 5. Cercyon
• Continuing his journey to Athens, Theseus met Cercyon. He
would challenge passers-by to wrestle with him and then crush
them to death in his powerful embrace; but Theseus lifted him
up by the knees and, to the delight of Demeter, who witnessed
the struggle, dashed him headlong to the ground. Cercyon’s
death was instantaneous. Theseus did not trust to strength so
much as to skill, for he had invented the art of wrestling, the
principles of which were not hitherto understood.

78. 6. Polypemon
• On reaching Attic Coridallus, Theseus slew Sinis’s father
Polypemon, who lived beside the road and had two beds in his
house, one small, the other large, offering a night’s lodging to
travelers. He possessed a hammer, a saw, and a bed. He
compelled travelers to lie on the bed, and those who were too
long for it he would cut down to size; those who were too short
he would hammer out until they fit it exactly. He too perished at
Theseus' hands in the way in which he had killed his victims.

79. Theseus reaches Athens
• Theseus' arrival was hedged with further danger. Aegeus was
married to Medea, who expected their son Medus to succeed as
king of Athens. Medea immediately recognized Theseus as
Aegeus' son and a rival to Medus, and attempted to have
Theseus poisoned before Aegeus could recognize him. She
advised Aegeus that the newcomer would be a threat to his
power. He should entertain Theseus at a banquet where he
would drink poisoned wine, for which Medea would provide the
poison. Theseus at the banquet carved his meat with the sword
that he had recovered from under the rock at Troezen; Aegeus
recognized the sword, dashed the cup of poison out of Theseus'
hand, and publicly recognized him as his son and successor.

80. The Bull of Marathon
•Theseus' next labor was to catch the bull of Marathon,
said to have been the one that Heracles had brought
from Crete. He mastered the bull and drove it back to
Athens, where he sacrificed it to Apollo.

81. The Minotaur
• Androgeos, son of the Cretan king Minos, had been killed in Attica
because of the jealousy he aroused by winning all the contests at
the Panathenaic games. In revenge Minos mounted an expedition
against Athens. In requital for the death of Androgeus, Minos gave
orders that the should send seven youths and seven maidens every
ninth year to the Cretan Labyrinth, where the Minotaur waited to
devour them.

82. • Theseus’s Athens the tribute fell due for the third time, and he
so deeply moved by the fathers whose children were indicated
by lot, that offered himself as one of the victims.
• On the two previous occasions, the ship which conveyed the
victims had carried black sails, but Theseus was confident that
the gods were on his side, and Aegeus therefore gave him a
white sail as a signal of success.

83. • The Delphic Oracle had advised Theseus to take Aphrodite as his
guide and companion on the voyage. He therefore sacrificed to
her a she goat.
• Aphrodite had indeed accompanied Theseus: for Minos’s own
daughter Ariadne fell in love with him at first sight. ‘I will help
you to kill my half-brother, the Minotaur,’ she secretly promised
him, ‘if I may return to Athens with you as your wife.’ This offer
Theseus gladly accepted, and married her.

84. • Now, before Daedalus left Crete, he had given her a magic ball of
thread, and instructed her how to enter and Labyrinth. She must
open the entrance door and tie the loose thread to the lintel; the
ball would then roll along, diminishing as it went and making,
with devious turns and twists, for the corners where the
Minotaur was lodged. This ball Ariadne gave to Theseus and
instructed him to follow it until he reached the sleeping monster,
whom he must seize by the hair and sacrifice to Poseidon. He
then can come back by rolling up the thread into a ball again.

85. •When Theseus emerged from the Labyrinth, spotted with
blood, Ariadne guided the whole Athenian group to the
harbour. For, in the meantime, the two companions of
Theseus had killed the guards of the women’s quarters,
and released the virgin victims. They all stole aboard
their ship.

86. • Some days later, after disembarking on the island then named Dia,
Theseus left Ariadne asleep on the beach and sailed away. Why he
did so must remain a mystery. Some say that he deserted her in
favour of a new mistress, Aegle, daughter of Panopeus; Others again
say that Dionysus, appearing to Theseus in a dream, threateningly
demanded Ariadne for himself, and that, when Theseus noticed
Dionysus’s fleet bearing down on Dia, he weighed anchor in sudden
terror; Dionysus having cast a spell which made him forget his
promise to Ariadne and even her very existence.

87. • Whether in grief for her loss, or in joy at the sight of the Attic
coast, from which he had been kept by prolonged winds, he
forgot his promise to hoist the white sail. Aegeus, who stood
watching for him on the Acropolis, swooned, and fell headlong
to his death into the valley below. But some say that he
deliberately cast himself into the sea, which was thenceforth
named the Aegean. So Theseus became king of Athens.

88. • Theseus & Amazons